4x08: Damien - Let's Not Meet

[00:00:02] My name is Andrew Tate and this is Season 4, Episode 8 of Lets Not Meet, A True Horror Podcast. Fucking Damien. This guy was the absolute worst. After getting fired from his job as a cook, he continued to hang out around the restaurant and start shit with people.

[00:00:32] Which is how I met him because he was never actually an employee when I was there. Some background. Damien was physically abusive to his girlfriend, who worked as a host up front. To the point of physically beating her in the back of the kitchen.

[00:00:49] They would constantly have shouting matches and I heard from others that she was very sweet. It was really Damien that was terrible. Other co-workers tried to call him out on it and he would just threaten to kill them or beat them up. He was crazy.

[00:01:06] The reason he wasn't fired was only due to his relationship with the kitchen manager, Dom. Dom had taken Damien under his wing so he let him get away with all of his bullshit.

[00:01:19] It wasn't until an assistant manager threatened to report the situation to HR that Dom finally talked to him. He got away with so much, but when he was confronted, he lashed out and started cussing Dom out.

[00:01:33] Apparently Damien's aggression was fine until it was directed at him because Dom fired him that day. Flash forward about a few months. I start working at this restaurant as a host and I immediately take issue with Damien hanging around.

[00:01:48] He would sexually harass myself and other girls verbally and sometimes physically, like giving us weird massages. I tell the host manager, Amanda, and nothing happens. At this point, I didn't know a whole lot about Damien's history and I didn't realize how aggressive he could get.

[00:02:09] I call him out on it one day saying he's creepy, obnoxious, and an asshole. And it catches him off guard. A day or two later, he tries to get into an argument with me and I say, Don't ever fucking talk to me.

[00:02:24] That worked for maybe a week or so, although I hear from others that he's obsessing over it and he's angry. He finally confronts me at the host stand and it turns into a shouting match. And let me just remind you, he doesn't even work here.

[00:02:44] I will completely admit, I'm not blameless. To be honest, I went out of my way to tell him off and put myself in danger by doing so. I heard how he was and had even had him physically threaten me multiple times but still wouldn't back down.

[00:03:00] I waited too long to get other people involved. The conversation starts off with him pretending to make amends, but really just trying to figure out why I wouldn't talk to him and insult me.

[00:03:13] And I tell him I just don't like him and that there's nothing to talk about. I tell him he doesn't work there and we didn't need to talk to each other. He starts getting mad and aggressive and calls me a bitch.

[00:03:27] The shouting match was really sparked after I called him pathetic and a lowlife. I think Damien was really used to people just ignoring him and just tolerating his presence, so I really pissed him off. He starts screaming at me and yells sexist statements like,

[00:03:45] You're not worth it if my dick's not in you. Some bullshit like that. Somehow the managers didn't hear this, but my friend and co-worker pulled me into the back and tell me it's not worth it. I just couldn't understand why they'd let him do whatever he wanted.

[00:04:04] A few nights later, and I've just started to get scared. My boyfriend James had come to pick me up. We didn't have a car and so we just walked to and from our jobs. He gets in the middle of it though.

[00:04:19] Basically he confronts Damien and asks if he's the guy who's been beating his girlfriend for the last two weeks. Instantly Damien is threatening to fight him and insulting him.

[00:04:32] James was going through a lot at the time and was not in a normal state of mind, so I think he let this get away from him too much. I go to cry in the bathroom and then James and I find a ride from a co-worker,

[00:04:46] since we deemed it unsafe to walk home as Damien was whipping around the parking lot in his Mustang. The next night, my boyfriend had borrowed our roommate's car to pick me up and was sitting at the front waiting for me to finish my closing duties.

[00:05:04] Damien comes in with this other guy and starts trying to bait James into a fight. He doesn't take it and he just ignores him. Damien and the guy go to the back and come out five minutes later, insulting him as they leave.

[00:05:22] I don't finish my closing work until about 45 minutes later. When I'm finally done, we hear an engine revving. We look out and we watch Damien whip out of the parking lot, followed by six other cars.

[00:05:38] I'm positive they were going to try and jump James if he had gone out there. We call the cops, but we need to get my roommate's car back to her so we can only stay for about 15 minutes.

[00:05:52] We find out later that they showed up but obviously couldn't do anything. The whole situation has scared the shit out of me at this point and none of my managers are doing anything about it.

[00:06:02] Damien even hangs out in the back of the kitchen despite not being employed there. And they're all fine with it. I tell my dad about it and go to HR, which is really hard to get in contact with at a chain restaurant,

[00:06:15] which is why it took me so long. And my dad offers to help. I think as I was 19 and had recently moved out and gotten my own place, I really wanted to handle this on my own as an adult. I obviously couldn't.

[00:06:30] And it had gotten to the point that I knew the managers weren't going to listen to me, so I finally accepted that I needed a real adult. After my dad goes in and threatens to sue, the manager finally listens. Amazing what threatening a lawsuit will do.

[00:06:48] They ban Damien from the premises and then pretend like they didn't know what was going on with me, even though I had told Amanda and Dom both. They just didn't take me seriously. A month goes by and things are great. You'd think it would end right there.

[00:07:07] But no. Damien shows up at my apartment complex in his modded Mustang. It was like badly painted black with a Deception logo on the hood. Turns out he moved in with a couple of guys and definitely knew where I lived.

[00:07:27] I'm actually pretty sure Amanda has mentioned me living there to him casually, since they were friends before realizing that he hated me. Surprisingly not much happened at first, though I was trying to avoid him at all costs.

[00:07:43] But of course after a couple of weeks he tries to hit James with his car and yells at us from his car window. I tell the landlady and apparently he had already bitched about us to her.

[00:07:55] Luckily we were in good standing with her and she could tell that he was off. She let us know that he wasn't on the lease and said she'd watch for any excuse to kick him out.

[00:08:07] Thankfully he is chaotic as fuck so this doesn't take long and he's gone. The last time I saw him, I had borrowed my dad's car for work one day and I was leaving. I half noticed a silver car behind me.

[00:08:23] As I pulled up to a light, I make eye contact with Damien through the rear view mirror and I instantly freak out internally. He followed me to the bank but speeds off as I pull in. Thank God I didn't go straight home.

[00:08:41] I know it's a lot and I'm sure I left some out because it's been a few years but a lot has happened to me since. But yeah, Damien let's not meet.

[00:08:55] I live in a high crime country so my home has an alarm linked to a private security and the property is surrounded by a high wall. There is a rolled down steel garage door in the wall which gives access directly onto the street.

[00:09:17] I had just had a baby a few days ago and was sitting in the lounge watching TV while the baby slept next to me.

[00:09:25] I hear the exterior garage door making opening noises but I think it's probably just my husband stopping by to check on us since the baby is so new and he was working close by that day. Then I realize that my dog's barking had not changed pitch.

[00:09:44] If it were my husband coming home, their barks would have changed to excited yipping.

[00:09:51] So I hobble into my bedroom which has a view of the exterior door and I see a strange man has popped the side of the door open with a crowbar and is slithering through the gap into my property.

[00:10:06] No problem. This is why we have security so I run or hobble because I had a baby remember to the lounge and hit the panic button which is supposed to set off the house alarm and send an SOS to the security company.

[00:10:22] The panic button does nothing. It's completely dead. I run back to my bedroom. My mind is blank from the panic and by now the man is starting to climb through the window.

[00:10:37] It dawns on me that nobody is coming to help and my new baby is just in the other room. There's no time to phone anyone so I hulk the fuck out. I bunch up my shoulders and start screaming like a banshee and run directly at the man.

[00:10:56] I'm 5'2 with a deflated pregnant belly so I couldn't have looked very scary but he must have shit himself because he just let go of the frame and literally fell to the ground before scrambling up and back out of the hole that he popped through.

[00:11:12] I was shaking and crying. If he had kept coming in, I don't know what I would have done. My husband was home within a few minutes and we fixed the panic button the same day. Strange man at the window lets not meet again.

[00:11:28] This all started when my mom met her new boyfriend. We'll call Ray. I was 14 at the time. The first time he met me and my siblings, he looked at my mom and said, Oh wow, I didn't know you had a gang.

[00:11:54] Even though she already told him how many kids she had. So great first impression right? He seemed like a normal guy at first but after he moved in, we soon realized he was a hothead.

[00:12:08] He would yell and throw tantrums. But he would always sweet talk his way around my mom and try to make everything seem okay. This is probably why she didn't dump him sooner. My mom has always been a bit immature, so I think it made it easier for him.

[00:12:27] But Ray found it really difficult to get along with me and my siblings. He would complain about every little thing we did wrong. And he started to accuse us of trying to ruin their relationship because of this.

[00:12:40] I have two sisters and one brother. Me and my younger sister were the wild ones of the family. And we were the ones he had a problem with. He soon stopped us from seeing friends that he didn't like. And was more strict with us than our other siblings.

[00:13:00] I realized he was crazy when he picked me up from school one day, which he normally never did. And while driving home he accused me and my sister of talking about him behind his back.

[00:13:11] I said, what? And he started telling me that I shouldn't bother to deny it because he's got proof. When he got home, he showed me a recorder and played back me and my sister complaining about him in our bedroom.

[00:13:28] So I knew that thing had been in our room. Immediately I shouted at him, why are you recording us in our bedroom? We had a huge argument and I immediately called my mom and told her.

[00:13:42] But I think she didn't want to get on his bad side because she didn't say anything about it to him, which still annoys me. I made him remove all the recorders from mine and my sister's room.

[00:13:55] When I was 16, I got a job at Chicken Treat. And he had a big problem with that as well. The reason for this was because my boyfriend at the time worked there and he thought I was just going there to mess around.

[00:14:10] So his way of making sure I didn't was to come and record me. And he did this for a month. My manager even had to go out to him a few times to tell him that he couldn't videotape the restaurant, which was mortifying.

[00:14:25] But every time my manager would go out to confront him, he just said that he was proud of me and wanted to film me at my job. Ray would also purposefully walk into my bedroom when I was changing, which obviously weirded me out.

[00:14:43] And every time I told him to stop or get out, he would say that we should have locked the door. My sister also told me he did the same thing to her and we always had to get changed super fast.

[00:14:56] But I was pretty much done at this point. I just moved in with my dad who moved back home. My dad was pissed when I told him all of this and he wanted to call the police on him.

[00:15:07] He actually drove over to confront him, but he was out and my mom screamed at him not to call the police. My dad was pissed and drove around the block a few times, but Ray didn't turn up. Lucky for him.

[00:15:20] I've never seen my dad that angry before. They broke up soon after something unrelated happened. So to my mom's crazy ex-Ray, please let's not meet again. I've been reading these stories in the subreddit for a while and this is my first post.

[00:15:48] This happened to me about two years ago now, but I think about it a lot. Even to this day, I get so scared when I think about it and what might have happened if my dad wasn't there.

[00:16:00] During this time, I was going to grad school in Texas and visiting my family in Kansas City. I had just finished my visit and was driving back to Texas. I started my drive and about an hour in, I got a flat tire.

[00:16:16] I called my dad and he told me to call roadside assistance and that he'd be there with a AAA card as soon as he could. He got there, roadside assistance put on my spare, and we went off to the nearest Walmart to get all the tires replaced.

[00:16:33] The nearest Walmart was about 20 miles away, as we were in a pretty rural part of Kansas. I was following my dad driving about 55 miles per hour since I was on a spare. There weren't a lot of cars on the highway, basically just me and my dad.

[00:16:49] My dad was a little bit ahead of me, so I don't think it was apparent that I was following him. Somewhere along the drive, I noticed a dark-colored SUV behind me. He was flashing his lights at me, swerving under the shoulder and then back into his lane,

[00:17:08] accelerating so that if he was really close to my car, then he would fall back just a bit. From the time that I noticed him, he did this for about 4-5 miles, which is a really long time when you're in the moment.

[00:17:24] I was about to call my dad because I felt like this was incredibly strange. Like I said, it was pretty rural and there were no cars around. If this guy was upset that I was driving slowly, he could have just gotten onto the left lane and passed me,

[00:17:40] but he continued to flash his lights, tailgate me, and swerve onto the shoulder. At this point, my dad saw what was happening. He took an exit and then parked on the shoulder. I followed. This exit was not one that we needed to take.

[00:17:56] It was a rural exit onto a gravel road, and I don't think it's used very frequently. Lo and behold, the guy followed me as well. I pulled behind my dad, who was already out of his car with his arms in the air saying, What the hell?

[00:18:16] At this point, I think the guy finally realized that I truly wasn't alone. He slowed down, looked at both of us, and hesitated for a second. Then he took a hard left onto the gravel road and took off.

[00:18:31] At this point, I thought about trying to get his license plate, but it was too late. The dust from the gravel road made it impossible to see the license plate. I still kick myself for not looking at the plate sooner.

[00:18:44] I know this post may not be as scary as some others, but this situation really scared me. We called the police to report it. There isn't much that they could do since we didn't even have the license plate number.

[00:18:56] However, I did learn that if you're ever in a situation like this, to call Highway Patrol, not 911. When you're on the highway, you travel through so many jurisdictions that it's better to just call Highway Patrol directly.

[00:19:11] Maybe common sense, but it wasn't something that I had thought about before. Since that day, I have the number for Highway Patrol in my phone in case I ever need to use it. So stranger who was trying to get me to pull over, let's not meet.

[00:19:35] This happened when I was a bartender about four years ago. But I think about it often and it has changed the way that I operate throughout life. I now refuse to go to any store alone after midnight.

[00:19:47] For the sake of the story, I'll just tell you that I was 25 and an attractive slender blonde at the time. On a busy Friday night, I was bartending with the bar manager and he had noticed that we were very low on some bar necessities after the dinner rush.

[00:20:04] Lemons, limes, bitters, that kind of thing. So I was sent out to go to a 24-hour grocery store down the road to pick up the odds and ends that were required for us to get through the weekend.

[00:20:16] I picked up everything that was asked of me without any trouble at the store until I got to the liquor aisle. There were two, quote, country-looking guys that were probably around my age in the aisle

[00:20:32] and they were staring at me and whispering to each other in a way that made me uncomfortable as I assumed they were making comments about me. All pretty innocent so far though. Before they could approach me, I grabbed what I needed very quickly

[00:20:48] and power walked to the self-checkout. I really booked it out of there because when you're a bartender, it's kind of like you're on a stage and are required to be charming and interact with people

[00:21:00] that you otherwise absolutely wouldn't be able to tolerate unless you were getting paid to. That's why I'm not a bartender anymore. I get to the self-checkout and hot on my tail are the two guys. I'm scanning my stuff and they use the scanning station next to me.

[00:21:20] I get a better look at them now that they are right next to me. One is taller, muscular and average looking. The other is shorter and a little more plump. They both look dirty and their eyes were completely bloodshot.

[00:21:34] Not sure if they were high or something or had just been drinking for a while. They continue to stare at me and our eyes awkwardly meet. So I did the pleasant Midwestern-y thing to do and flash them a quick half-assed closed-lipped smile to be polite.

[00:21:55] The taller one starts trying to talk to me. Hey, it looks like you're ready to party, huh? I replied something along the lines of, yeah, something like that. It's not for me though. They walk closer to me and ignore their responsibility to scan their items.

[00:22:15] Must have been for your boyfriend, huh? I flashed the awkward tight-lipped smile again and rolled my eyes slightly. Like, this is your hint that I'm not interested, fellows. The taller one continues to try and talk to me. You could come hang out with us tonight.

[00:22:34] We could show you a real good time if you know what I mean. I reply, no thanks, I'm good. I have plans already. The tall one starts to get upset that his moves aren't working like he'd hoped

[00:22:49] and starts using more threatening tones and moves very close to me. Like two inches away. But I ignore him, staying focused on my scanner. I don't think he had showered in a few days by the smell of him. He gets a little louder and says,

[00:23:09] I see how it is. You probably only fuck doctors and rich men like that. You think you're too good for us? We can show you that you aren't. We can teach you a lesson. Now, I'm not sure in what context he meant, but it definitely was not good.

[00:23:28] Still not looking at him, I turn away so my body is blocking his view of my purse which I set on the scanner to grab my four-inch pocket knife out of and slide it up my jacket sleeve in case I need to protect myself,

[00:23:42] acting like I'm searching for my wallet. I do this, however, in view of the self-scan worker standing at her podium and look at her with wide eyes trying to communicate that I do not feel safe and I might need help.

[00:23:57] I turn back to the machine and slide my credit card to pay while the creepy and hostile guys are practically standing on top of me. The machine malfunctions and starts beeping. The lady co-worker comes over and immediately the guys standing next to me change their expressions from,

[00:24:15] I'm planning to torture you for the next couple of days and toss your body in a creek to, just your friendly old country boys making polite conversation over here. They actually tried to act like I knew them and we were friends

[00:24:29] so the co-worker wouldn't be alerted to their ill intentions. They tried joking with the worker saying I was stealing something and that's why the machine went off. The co-worker was definitely not buying it. She was six feet tall with some muscle on her, by the way.

[00:24:46] I wouldn't mess with her on my best day. Anyways, she presses a few buttons on the screen, shooting the guys an unimpressed look when they were trying to act charming and cancels the order completely. She turns to me and says, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am.

[00:25:05] This machine seems to be not working correctly. Why don't you gather up your things and I'll ring you up at an actual register? She puts her hand on my back and gives me a wide-eyed look like I gave her just a minute earlier,

[00:25:18] letting her know that she sees that I'm in danger. I pick up my things and follow her to the register that is near the security office. The guys linger around the self-checkout, still glaring at me, and eventually complete their purchase, but they stand at the exit.

[00:25:37] I'm assuming that they're waiting for me. I felt like I would be walking to my death if I made my exit that moment. The worker keeps a close eye on the guys and scans my items. As she's scanning, she tells me there really wasn't anything wrong

[00:25:53] with the machine that I was using. It just misread my credit card. She said, I had a bad feeling about those guys from the moment that they walked in, and then I saw them getting aggressive towards you.

[00:26:05] I already ranked security to be ready to walk you to the parking lot and make sure that you leave safely when you're ready to leave. Then I saw you take that knife out and put it up your sleeve getting ready to protect yourself. Good girl.

[00:26:20] As much as I'd like to see you show them that they picked on the wrong chick, I'm glad I was able to pull you aside and make sure you're safe. I see them waiting for you by the door. I'll just keep pressing buttons on the screen

[00:26:33] and act like I'm having trouble with your order until they give up and go outside. Our security officer and I are both still going to escort you to your vehicle when you leave, though. I thought to myself, this woman seriously deserves a raise.

[00:26:47] I thanked her over and over and told her what they said to me. I was getting afraid because I didn't know what these guys were capable of. As I'm talking to her, the bar manager calls me to see what's taking so long.

[00:27:00] I explain what was happening, and he was obviously very concerned and ready to come up there himself and kick some ass. A sweet sentiment, indeed. By the time I hang up, the guys had given up and walked out to the parking lot.

[00:27:15] The worker said to give it another few minutes because she had a feeling that they may still be in the parking lot waiting for me to walk out and see which vehicle was mine so that they could follow me.

[00:27:28] My instant thought was, no way, they have to be gone by now. I was wrong. The worker and security guard escort me out, and as it was after midnight, you can imagine how empty the parking lot was.

[00:27:43] Towards the back of the parking lot, there sat an old pickup truck running with its lights on, pointed towards a store. It was a huge parking lot, and it wouldn't have made sense for them to

[00:27:58] initially park like that, so I'm assuming they moved the truck to sit that way so that they had a full view of when I exited the store to go to my vehicle. It was like being stalked by very hungry lions.

[00:28:12] When I unlocked my car and they saw that it was me, the worker and the guard were looking directly at them to sort of let them know that I wasn't getting in my car until we watched them leave. They then peeled out of the parking lot.

[00:28:28] I mean, they seriously did a burnout to establish that they were pissed and trying to intimidate us or something. Ah, poor creeps. They didn't get their way, boo hoo. I thanked the worker and the guard over and over again, as I'm certain they had just saved my life,

[00:28:46] or at least saved me from having to live with whatever those guys were planning on doing to me. I did write a letter to the store manager and to their corporate location describing how their employees protected me and how grateful I was.

[00:29:00] I really hope that earned their promotion, bonus, and raises. She didn't know me at all, and she was ready to protect me, which really isn't her job, but she did it anyways. Needless to say, I do not go out late at night shopping by myself anymore,

[00:29:18] and I never will again. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. This week you have heard Damien by Reddit user KitKatMonster. The Man in the Window by Reddit user HomeMadeHamburger. My Mom's Crazy Ex-Boyfriend Put Recording Devices in My Room

[00:29:48] and Filmed Me at My Job for a Month by Reddit user lulabreen. SUV Tried to Get Me to Pull Over on a Rural Highway by Reddit user sylviawrath69. And finally, Why I Don't Go to Stores Late at Night by Reddit user Venus Nova.

[00:30:05] All of the stories in this week's episode were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors, and if you'd like to hear your story on this show, email me at letsnotmeetstories at gmail.com.

[00:30:17] A special thanks to Nancy this week for being the patron of the week. Head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast if you want to support the show and gain access to all of the bonus material.

[00:30:30] You're getting a lot more than just bonus episodes of Let's Not Meet, I'm also doing a brand new podcast called Hey Y'all, where I'm simply checking in with all of my Patreon listeners and giving you some inside and behind the scenes info on the podcasting world

[00:30:43] and what's going on with Let's Not Meet, as well as what's going on in my personal life. So if that boring crap is something that you're interested in, again head over to patreon.com forward slash letsnotmeetpodcast.

[00:30:55] I'll see you all next week for a brand new episode of Let's Not Meet.